160
men and women with type 2 diabetes; recruited from physician
offices. Sample restricted to those who did not have Internet
access at home or work; mean age 59, 53.1% women.

Diabetes:
home computer with Internet

Diabetes
Web site: All had online articles about diabetes. Coach
group also had a coach who gave dietary advice and help
with goal-setting. Social support group could exchange
information, coping, and support through a peer-directed
forum, message boards, and real-time chat. Combined group
had all of the above.

Participants
randomized into four groups: Information Only, Personal
Coach, Social Support, Combined Social Support and Coach.
Participants were provided with computers and training.
Access was restricted to just the resources in the condition
to which they were assigned.

Social
support

Participants
in the Social Support Only condition had the greatest increase
in perceived social support, followed by the Combined conditions,
then the Coach Only conditions, and finally the Control
condition. Only the contrast between the two support conditions
and the control condition were significant.

More
in intervention group reported reading the Web page. Intervention
group had trend toward liking the source better. Intervention
group followed more links. Control group found their Web
page more relevant, while intervention group found Web
page more personalized. No difference in self-efficacy
to wear sunscreen or expected outcomes of wearing/not wearing
sunscreen. No difference at followup to sunscreen-wearing
behaviors. Treatment group showed a reduction in two of
five barriers.

378
low-income women, primarily African American women enrolled
in the Food Stamp program in Durham, NC

Nutrition:
clinic-based computer with interactive multimedia program

Sisters
at Heart: Tailored multimedia program using tailored soap
opera and interactive “info-mercials” that
provide tailored feedback about dietary fat, knowledge,
strategies for lowering fat that are based on stage of
change, modeling through the soap opera story

Control
group: no intervention; Intervention group: one session
of Sisters at Heart

Usability,
knowledge, stage of change, eating behaviors

79%
rated program as very helpful, 66% would use it again,
and 55% said none of the information was new. Intervention
group significantly increased knowledge, stage of change,
and certain eating behaviors (baking meat and eating low-fat
snacks). Both groups lowered their fat intake at followup
but did not differ from each other.

Student
Bodies: an 8-week program designed to reduce body dissatisfaction
and excessive weight concerns. It consists of readings,
exercises, online journals, and a moderated online discussion
group.

Control
group: wait-list control; Intervention group 1: Student
Bodies along with three in-person sessions and other readings;
Intervention group 2: Classroom education using Body Traps,
a classroom intervention with a more traditional academic
focus. This study attempted to increase adherence through
use of motivators, specifically pass/fail grading based
on completion of activities.

Compliance
measures, body image, and eating attitudes and behaviors

68%
compliance in computer group vs. 57% in classroom group.
Greater compliance in Student Bodies group using incentive
than in previous studies. Found evidence of dose-response
relationship. Computer group had significant reductions
in weight/shape concerns compared to controls; at followup,
disordered behaviors reduced. No significant effects were
found between the Body Traps and wait-list control conditions.

Aid
for “Contraceptive Decision-making Program”:
user can choose a contraceptive method from a menu of choices,
learn how method is used, graphical presentation of effectiveness,
assess personal situation for appropriateness of method,
method benefits and costs, feedback about barriers, and
patient printout to facilitate discussion with clinician.

Control
group: has standard clinic visit. Intervention group: interacts
with computer program before clinic visit.

All
Madison participants and 98% of Chicago participants liked
the computer program. Significant increase in knowledge,
greater immediate impact on outcome expectations, no effect
of computer on length of usage of OC, trend toward reduced
pregnancy in Madison but not in Chicago.

299
adults with and without depression recruited from a large
HMO, matched by age and gender

Depression:
home computer with Internet

Overcoming
Depression on the Internet (ODIN): a self-paced, skills
training program focusing on the acquisition and use of
cognitive restructuring techniques

Control
group: received a link to the Kaiser Permanente Online
home page where they could receive information and were
free to receive other treatment as needed. Intervention
group received a link to the intervention.

Site
usage, depression

Infrequent
patient use of the site; found that their population was
more seriously depressed than that for which the intervention
was designed. No effect of Internet program across entire
sample; post hoc analysis showed modest effect among those
with lower level depression. Analyses showed no dose-response
relationship but limited dose overall.

Intervention
group used the Internet more for general and child health
information. 32% of those in intervention group used the
IP. 66.2% of the Internet information resources used by
the intervention group were prescribed by the physicians.
Compared with nonusers, IP users were more likely to state
they would use the IP again in the future and had already
recommended the IP to family or friends.

Food
intake, stage of change, self-rated diet, intent to change,
and confidence in making changes

Intervention
group increased by 1.1 serving of fruit, other food groups
showed positive trends. Dose-response relationship seen
with higher users eating less fat, more fruit and fiber.
More subjects in intervention group moved forward in stage
of readiness to change for eating fruits and whole grains,
but no difference for vegetables, red meat, and whole fat
dairy products.

Study
used several different Internet and non-Internet recruitment
strategies, randomized into one of four incentive and reminder
conditions ($10/e-mail, $10/U.S. mail, $20/e-mail, $20/U.S.
mail).

Satisfaction
with program; how they found the Web site; smoking behavior,
cessation, support, cessation self-efficacy, past use of
other cessation aids

Most
successful recruitment strategy made use of Internet search
engines and user groups, with search engines yielding the
most participants. Cessation rate at 3 months was 18%.
Participants recruited via Internet had higher cessation
rates. No difference in response to questionnaires with
$10 or $20 incentives. No difference in response to mail
or e-mail followup reminders.

Preliminary
findings show higher patient compliance to asthma action
plans in comparison to control. Lung function test results
collected at home were comparable to those collected under
the supervision of trained professionals.